A four-pole electric connector is described in German Patent Application No. 40 39 239 A1, in which a contact element is used in each receptacle along a longitudinal axis in a contact carrier of a connector containing a plurality of receptacles arranged in rows.
A comb-like locking element is provided for axially securing the contact elements in the receptacles. The locking element contains a comb-tooth-like rigid web for each row of receptacles.
Each contact element can be overlapped by an end region of a web in the area of a locking section whose cross section is reduced in relation to adjacent sections.
When the connector is mounted, the locking element should be pushed, in a separate operation, through a shaft, whose end face is in contact with the contact carrier, before the contact carrier is inserted into an enclosure of the connector and, thus, the front end of the shaft is covered to secure the locking element.
Handling the locking element in this manner is inconvenient from the manufacturing point of view, since not only does it have to be received by a container, conveyed, aligned, and assembled in a separate operation, but there is also the danger that the locking element may become damaged due to the fact that it is conveyed without protection and the contact element is not secured in position after assembly, which ultimately may result in failure of the connector.